Orlean jumps around in her discussion about the cause of the library fire. She discusses Harry Peaks, his life, and his tendency to tell stories and tales. Harry told investigators that he was at the fire, he was miles away from the fire, he heard about the fire being set (when that wasn’t discussed in the news yet), he saw smoke from the fire (when there wasn’t smoke). (pg. 222-223) Towards the end of the book she notes that arson investigations have historically relied on Negative corpus, a lack of a body. If you can’t prove there was not a crime, then it must be a crime. If the accidental sources have been eliminated, then it must be arson, even where there is no proof it was arson. (pg. 275-276). Orlean discussed the fire and its results with Paul Beiber of the Arson Research Project, who noted that it would be extremely difficult to determine where or what was the cause of such an extreme fire (pg. 280). In the end, Beiber speculated that there might not be anyone to blame for the fire.
After reading through the book, do you think that Harry was responsible for starting the fire or do you agree with Beiber that there might not be a person responsible? Did you find yourself swaying to one opinion over another?
After reading through the book, do you think that Harry was responsible for starting the fire or do you agree with Beiber that there might not be a person responsible? Did you find yourself swaying to one opinion over another?
~Anne